Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Playground Review - Grizzly Bear Lodge Playground

Today I had the pleasure of attending the grand opening of
the Grizzly Bear Lodge Playground, right behind the Kinsmen with a few friends. My kids are 4 & 2, the youngest being a boy, the elder a girl.
I’m one of those paranoid moms who cannot just sit unless my little people are
in plain sight, especially on a day like today when the park was hopping. Plus. my little man seems to want to go as far from wherever his sister is playing so that's always fun! :)

After chatting with my friends a bit and getting their take, here are my thoughts.

Positive

1. The view. This could not be more spectacular. I am a farm girl and all the open space, and tree's surrounding this park really speak to that part of me. You can't beat seeing the street car go across the bridge or the Leg rising up above our beautiful city scape.

2. There's just so much to do! Huge slides plus 5 different mini area's for playing in different ways, there is just no way for a little person to get bored. Nooks, cranny's, slides, wood chips, sand, picnic tables. It caters to all ages plus, they get hot and go cool off in the spray park that's just a few steps away.

3. The sheer amount of land/room around this park. Today it was super duper busy and we still found the perfect place, in the shade for a nice little picnic. And with that room comes no traffic. No worries about the kids running out on the street and dealing with any cars driving by. BONUS!

Challenges
1. The only challenge I had with this particular park goes back to positive point 2. There is just so much going on! There is a little hill in the middle of everything that I could see being the perfect perch for a mom who wants to keep an eye on the smaller ones but other than that because of the sheer size and how much there is to do, keeping them in eye sight is tough. The good thing though is that they have quite a few benches around each area so as long as your prepared to move around you can still take a few minutes to chill on a seat while they play in each area. I've been to this park before on a day where it isn't as busy and it's definitely easier to manage to keep an eye on them. Honestly, if my kids were just a touch older, this wouldn't even really be a challenge...or maybe if I wasn't such a helicopter mom. :)

Even with the construction on Walterdale hill, having to take Queen Elizabeth Park road, this is one of my favourite parks to take the kids to. Granted, I have not been to them all but my daughter was asking all the way home when we can go back to the "Bear Park" again. Both of them consider Queen Elizabeth Park road a roller coaster and say "Weeeeeee" the whole way down.

A really great day had by all and now they nap. Tuckered out Littles who enjoyed some sunshine and fun with friends. You just can't beat that.